her unreasonable to suppose that
groves of wood might once have covered these singular patches of
country, and that they had been uprooted and destroyed by some of
those violent convulsions of nature which from time to time have
devastated the island. Dr. Dasent produces ample testimony to show
that, in old times, not only corn grew in Iceland, but wood
sufficiently large to be used in building vessels. Now it is with
great difficulty that a few potatoes can be raised in some of the
warmest spots, and there is not a single tree to be found on the
entire island. The largest bushes I saw were only six or eight feet
high.

A singular fact connected with the bog-formation is that it is often
found in dry places--on the slopes of mountains, for example, in
certain localities where the water never settles and where the ground
is perpetually dry. I was greatly puzzled by this, and was scarcely
satisfied by the explanation given by Zoega, my guide, who said it was
caused by the action of the frost. In proof of the fact that they are
not of artificial formation, and that the process by which they are
developed is always going on, he stated that in many places where they
had been leveled down for sheep-corrals or some such purpose, a
similar formation of tufted hillocks had grown up in the course of a
few years.

I was continually troubled by the circuits made by Zoega to avoid
certain tracts of this kind which to me did not look at all
impracticable. Once I thought it would be a good joke to show him that
a Californian could find his way through the strange country even
better than a native; and watching a chance when he was not on the
look-out--for I suspected what his objection would be--I suddenly
turned my horse toward the bog, and urged him to take the short cut.
It was such a capital idea, that of beating my own guide about two
miles in a journey of little more than half a mile! But, strange to
say, the horse was of Zoega's opinion respecting roads through
Iceland. He would not budge into the bog till I inflicted some rather
strong arguments upon him, and then he went in with great reluctance.
Before we had proceeded a dozen yards he sank up to his belly in the
mire, and left me perched up on two matted tufts about four feet
apart. Any disinterested spectator would have supposed at once that I
was attempting to favor my guide with a representation of the colossal
statue at Rhodes, or the Natural Bridge in Virginia. Zoeg